Aftermath
by chichai
Summary: The clouds wandered with a broken reminiscence of purpose as the first few stars trudged out of the darkness to give the last of their dwindling glow to where the champ sat with distant eyes and a rigid expression locked upon his face [ONESHOT]


Random stuff here – written on a spur of the moment kinda thing so sorry 4 bad speln mistakes etc. The flasbak/thot bit mite b a bit unclear who it ws but as I said spur of the moment thing. But hey it makes 4 an interesting read

_Italics_ – thoughts

… … … - new scene

**Aftermath**

Takao clicked his tongue as he propped his head up with his left arm while his right hand tediously flicked his pen from side to side across his desk. Kai bit his teeth down together holding in a sigh that would let Takao know just how irritating he found the hollow rolling sound to be and crossed his arms tightly to try contain the longing to stride over and break the damn annoyance in half - but he wouldn't do anything to the pen - it was his after all. Takao sighed leaning back on the chair and stretching his feet out slamming his school books shut with a numb relief.

"Forget it I don't need maths anyway." Kai shook his head subconsciously raising his eyebrow at the same time.

"In future don't waste my time." He zipped up his jacket heading across the mess that was Takao's bedroom floor to get to his savior; the exit.

"Later." Takao rubbed his eyes leaning forward to look at the hellish black blur of numbers and Greek letters. The door clicked shut leaving Takao in his absent room and an empty mind; these stupid exams were really the last thing he wanted to concentrate on but they seemed to be the thing that came first in line. "Ok sin() to the root of eighteen over a prime number is equivalent to cos(x) - find the prime number and therefore the three definite real numbers for each of the values ,  and x…" Takao scratched his head; a prime number kind of rang a bell but then again he couldn't actually say for sure he knew how to find it. "Ok let's leave that one." He sighed turning the page to receive a small pleasant surprise; a small doodle of his maths teacher he and Kenny had both worked on after getting in trouble for not bringing their homework in on time.

_That's actually quite like him!_ Takao laughed holding the maths book at arms length admiring the bald, big eared gremlin with an outrageous a blue moustache that curled up to his nose which Kenny had artistically characterized with excess nasal hair. _Ah good times!_ Takao smiled putting the book back down and turning the page again to receive a less joyful reminder of why he had really given up on everything in the first place. The page mutely whimpered the echoes of the small and random broken images and occasional splurges of oxygen starved blood; that pain had never been fresh and vulnerable... in a way he felt cheated. Takao flipped the book shut and flung himself backwards against the hard back of the seat clenching his hands shut after his eyes caught hold of the tiny traces of the healing wounds that still slept upon his hand. The quietness of the room stung his eyes as his mind lay in a lost restlessness at the past memories that encircled the present like hungry vultures hungry for unfound guilt. Takao shut his eyes sighing.

"This is never going to end.."

… … …

"Ignore em! I'll help you, you'll ace it!" Kenny encouraged a disappointed Takao a few days later. Takao grunted scrunching up his school report which predicted his failure of almost every exam in the upcoming year. But he was past caring now; all he could remember was those dull maths pages and how they sported the tinged fragments of the spirit he had long lost. Kenny slowed down and watched Takao walk slightly ahead dragging his feet and slouching over like there was no tomorrow. "Oh come on Takao it's not that bad! Barbie always wants you to fail but that's her way of motivating you. And as for Master and Commander he's bald so he loses the heat from his head which means his brain cells die so he doesn't know anything. He gives everyone a hard time! Even Hiro."

"What?" Takao stopped turning around to look at Kenny whose voice had been a slight buzzing in his ear compared to the hissing and clattering that screamed through his head. "Why are you talking about the San-Siro? You going or something?" Kenny pulled a face that told Takao he had really gotten it wrong.

"I said even Hiro." Kenny inspected his friend for a split second before deciding to charge head first straight into the problem. "Tell me what's wrong."

"Nothing." Takao shrugged turning to walk off again.

"What d'you mean nothing? You've been a zombie for almost a week now. So just tell me so I can help cause if I have to tell Tanya I don't know why you're upset one more time I will rip you're head off so help me God!" Kenny laughed at the thought of him trying to tackle Takao; he knew he'd never be able to but he thought the comedy was needed.

"Well why don't you tell her to shut her fuckin mouth up??" Takao turned on Kenny. "And if you want to try get me fucking go for it!!!" Kenny narrowed his eyebrows at Takao's challenge.

"What is it with you??" He yelled back snapping Takao back to his senses. Kenny's eyes spat confusion as he watched Takao look down at the ground. The weight on Takao's shoulders shifted as his bag slipped off his shoulder giving him another rude awakening back to reality. "Takao?"

"It's nothing." He said weaker than Kenny had ever heard his voice before. "It's nothing." He repeated heaving his heavy bag back onto his shoulder and striding quicker than usual down the street to get to the bus stop. Kenny shook his head sighing as the bottom of his stomach fell through; the loss in Takao's eyes was deeper than any happiness or excitement Kenny'd ever seen in his life. It was so deep that Takao's image was no longer the embodiment of friendship, strength, belief and hope but a stranger clothed in ragged despair.

… ... …

School has that nauseating effect on the veins so it wasn't surprising that the evening slashed its unkempt claws deeper into Takao's shoulders than usual. Upon the garage rooftop Takao's skin felt the sting of the setting sun which gave the horizon deep blues and purples that riddled themselves with the softest tinges of pink. Takao sighed putting his chin between his knees as he crossed his arms tighter around his legs blocking out the clouds that wandered with a broken reminiscence of purpose as the first few stars trudged out of the darkness to give the last of their dwindling glow to where the champ sat with distant eyes and a rigid expression locked upon his face as the landscape slowly changed before him. Another sigh echoed in his mind as he closed his eyes at the sharp images that flashed in his mind;

"_Will you just shut the hell up??"_

"_Everything grows and changes-"_

"_not this!!! I'll never let you make me back away from this!!!"_

"_You damage yourself with ignorance and anger."_

"_I don't care!!! This isn't one of your lessons!! This is my life!!!!"_

"_Life is a lesson in itself. A lesson of which I am merely a learning pupil, and you, a blind one."_

Takao opened his eyes feeling a crushing depression smash into his chest; these past years couldn't be a passing whim….they were carved onto him, they were him…and if they really were nothing then he was to. The worthlessly poisoned breeze felt like the very breath of pain as it knitted itself across the open wound across his bicep before flicking a torn strand of his short sleeves into the very core of the crusted blood. Takao smirked;

_Good old Hiro, always keeping my ass in line._ His eyes looked at the once white fabric of his t-shirt that was quickly becoming saturated with red affliction. His static reaction and deaden eyes smothered the wisps of wind as his skin continued to fade into the realms of intangible hatred and rapt traces of feelings that had long gone astray. As time grew so did the stars numbers; their stealth sprinkled upon Takao's twilight filled plans as he closed his eyes.

…_Everything grows and changes…_ He unwrapped his arms from his legs as he swung them over the edge of the nine foot drop that disappeared in the newly fallen night. …_blind…_ He inhaled deeply pushing himself off the ledge, waiting for his feet to hit the ground and the aftermath to finally subside.


End file.
